Introducing “Old Blue”, and the importance of proper maintenance.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #EarthDayDriveAway #CollectiveBias

Let me introduce you to the newest member of our family. His name is Old Blue. And yes, he’s a truck.

We just moved from the bustle of America’s 7th largest city to a very small country town. It’s a great change of pace (and lack of sirens), but the country life also calls for a different approach to getting things home.

In San Antonio, we could just order something and it would be at our door the next morning. Here, you get in a truck and go get it. The thing is, we didn’t have a truck.

But we do now.

As you can probably tell, “Old Blue” isn’t new. He’s been around the block a few times, and is a little rough around the edges. That’s fine with me, I call that character. He’s in need of a few repairs and a little TLC. He’s also got a lot of miles on him. And with those miles comes the need for maintenance. And making sure his oil is in good shape is on the top of that list.

Seriously. This truck works for a living, and the work isn’t always clean or easy, so he needs to be in the best shape possible.

I prefer to use synthetic oil, especially in older vehicles. It’s been my experience that it reduces wear and keeps them going longer. I can’t tell you how excited we were to get a chance to try Mobil 1™‘s Extended Performance High Mileage (launched in March!). Old Blue has seen some wear and tear over the years and he’s well past the 75k mileage mark.

If you’re wondering why a recipe blogger is writing a post about a truck, I don’t blame you. But you’ll be seeing a lot more of Blue in the future. He’s just part of life here.

We moved to from Texas to Arkansas to be closer to my mother-in-law, and every state has different disposal requirements for oil. Since we had a ton of DIY items to pick up for our new house, we decided to let the Walmart Auto Care Center take care of it while we did our shopping. They also take care of oil disposal and recycling there, so I’ll definitely make it a regular stop after we maintain our vehicles at home.

My wife also pointed out that this moment was the start of our maintenance record for Old Blue. She wrote it down in her little red auto book and put it in the glove box.

Now here’s the best part! Mobil 1™ is giving Walmart customers a chance to win a Chevy Equinox, plus a $10 Walmart Select Certificate for their next Mobil 1™ purchase at Walmart. There are two ways to enter.

Purchase 5 quarters of Mobil 1™ in the store or get a Mobil 1™ oil change in the Auto Care Center

Recycle any used oil at the Auto Care Center

Once you’ve made your purchase of Mobil 1™ or recycled used oil at Walmart, you can enter the Chevy Equinox and $10 Walmart Select Certificate sweepstakes at earthdaydriveaway.com. There’s a limit of two entries in the sweepstakes per customer, and your receipt is required to receive the $10 Walmart Select Certificate.

Recycling oil just makes sense. Motor oil is unique in that it doesn’t wear out. It just gets dirty. Once it’s cleaned and re-refined, we can use it indefinitely. According to the EPA, it takes a lot less energy to produce a gallon of re-refined base stock than base stock from crude oil. I love efficiency. Did you know that the oil filters are reused as well? The filter is squashed and drained of oil. Then it’s shredded and sent for remelting. And all it takes it one trip to your local Walmart Auto Care Center to make it happen.

We got our oil changed at a Walmart Auto Care Center but you can pick up Mobil 1™ motor oil in almost any Walmart. If you’re not sure what type of oil you need, Walmart has an oil selector tool that is ready to help. Go to https://walmart.mobiloil.com/en and enter your year, make, model, and engine type to choose the best oil to protect it. Mobil 1™’s high mileage protection oil has always been a personal favorite of our road-trip happy family, but make sure you select the oil that best fits the needs of your vehicle and lifestyle.

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